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- February 2021
- Article
Trust and Disintermediation: Evidence from an Online Freelance Marketplace
By: Grace Gu and Feng Zhu
As an intermediary improves trust between the two sides of its market to facilitate matching and transactions, it faces an increased risk of disintermediation: with sufficient trust, the two sides may circumvent the intermediary to avoid the intermediary’s fees. In...
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- August 2020
- Article
Lone Wolves in Competitive Equilibria
By: Ravi Jagadeesan, Scott Duke Kominers and Ross Rheingans-Yoo
This paper develops a class of equilibrium-independent predictions of competitive equilibrium with indivisibilities. Specifically, we prove an analogue of the “Lone Wolf Theorem” of classical matching theory, showing that when utility is perfectly transferable, any...
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- March 2020
- Case
Poppy (B)
By: Thomas R. Eisenmann, Scott Duke Kominers, Jeff Huizinga and Allison Ciechanover
Avni Patel Thompson, founder and CEO of Poppy, an online marketplace for on-demand childcare, revisits the venture's final months, and discusses the steps she took in the wake of the shutdown. This case explores experiments the company conducted to refine its original...
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- February 2020
- Case
StockX: The Stock Market of Things
By: Chiara Farronato, John J. Horton, Annelena Lobb and Julia Kelley
Founded in 2015 by Dan Gilbert, Josh Luber, and Greg Schwartz, StockX was an online platform where users could buy and sell unworn luxury and limited-edition sneakers. Sneaker resale prices often fluctuated over time based on supply and demand, creating a robust...
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Keywords:
Markets;
Auctions;
Bids And Bidding;
Demand And Consumers;
Consumer Behavior;
Data And Data Sets;
Market Design;
Market Platforms;
Two-sided Platforms;
Multi-sided Platforms;
Market Transactions;
marketplace matching;
Supply And Industry;
Analysis;
Price;
Product Marketing;
Product Launch;
Apparel And Accessories Industry;
Fashion Industry;
North And Central America;
United States;
Michigan;
Detroit
- January 2020
- Case
Lunchclub: Algorithmic Networking
By: Scott Duke Kominers and George Gonzalez
Algorithmic networking startup Lunchclub coordinates in-person meetings between professionals who would have been unlikely to meet. The company faces marketplace design, growth, and monetization challenges: The executive team has to refine Lunchclub's marketplace...
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- December 2019
- Article
Costly Concessions: An Empirical Framework for Matching with Imperfectly Transferable Utility
By: Alfred Galichon, Scott Duke Kominers and Simon Weber
We introduce an empirical framework for models of matching with imperfectly transferable utility and unobserved heterogeneity in tastes. Our framework allows us to characterize matching equilibrium in a flexible way that includes as special cases the classic fully- and...
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- September 2019 (Revised August 2020)
- Case
Engineering an Inclusive Bioeconomy
By: Tarun Khanna, Raffaella Sadun and Susie L. Ma
In 2019, entrepreneur Juan Carlos Castilla-Rubio was developing a project he hoped could generate and share wealth from the natural resources of the Amazon without destroying those resources. His idea, called Earth Bank of Codes (EBC), would create a library of the...
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Keywords:
Decision Making;
Development Economics;
Entrepreneurship;
Innovation And Invention;
Intellectual Property;
Emerging Markets;
Market Design;
marketplace matching;
Science;
Genetics;
Natural Environment;
Environmental Sustainability;
Climate Change;
Social Enterprise;
Strategy;
Strategic Planning;
Technology;
Ownership;
Social Psychology;
Trust;
Society;
Biotechnology Industry;
South America;
Amazon Basin
- September 2019 (Revised September 2019)
- Case
Facebook Fake News in the Post-Truth World
By: John R. Wells, Carole A. Winkler and Benjamin Weinstock
In August 2019, Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook, was surrounded by controversy. The first major storm of protest followed the surprise election of Donald Trump as President of the United States on November 8, 2016; many put the blame at the door of fake...
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Keywords:
Facebook;
Fake News;
Mark Zuckerberg;
Donald Trump;
Algorithms;
Social Networks;
Partisanship;
Social Media;
App Development;
Instagram;
Whatsapp;
Smartphone;
Silicon Valley;
Office Space;
Digital Strategy;
Democracy;
Entry Barriers;
Online Platforms;
Controversy;
Tencent;
Agility;
Social Networking;
Gaming;
Gaming Industry;
Computer Games;
Mobile Gaming;
Messaging;
Monetization Strategy;
Advertising;
Online Advertising;
Business Ventures;
Acquisition;
Mergers And Acquisitions;
Business Growth And Maturation;
Business Headquarters;
Business Organization;
For-profit Firms;
Trends;
Communication;
Communication Technology;
Forms Of Communication;
Interactive Communication;
Interpersonal Communication;
Talent And Talent Management;
Crime And Corruption;
Voting;
Demographics;
Entertainment;
Games, Gaming, And Gambling;
Moral Sensibility;
Values And Beliefs;
Initial Public Offering;
Profit;
Revenue;
Geography;
Geographic Location;
Global Range;
Local Range;
Country;
Cross-cultural And Cross-border Issues;
Globalized Firms And Management;
Globalized Markets And Industries;
Governing Rules, Regulations, And Reforms;
Government And Politics;
International Relations;
National Security;
Political Elections;
Business History;
Recruitment;
Selection And Staffing;
Information Management;
Information Publishing;
News;
Newspapers;
Innovation And Management;
Innovation Strategy;
Technological Innovation;
Knowledge Dissemination;
Human Capital;
Law;
Leadership Development;
Leadership Style;
Leading Change;
Business Or Company Management;
Crisis Management;
Goals And Objectives;
Growth And Development Strategy;
Growth Management;
Management Practices And Processes;
Management Style;
Management Systems;
Management Teams;
Managerial Roles;
Marketing Channels;
Social Marketing;
Network Effects;
Market Entry And Exit;
Market Platforms;
Two-sided Platforms;
marketplace matching;
Industry Growth;
Industry Structures;
Monopoly;
Media;
Product Development;
Service Delivery;
Corporate Social Responsibility And Impact;
Mission And Purpose;
Organizational Change And Adaptation;
Organizational Culture;
Organizational Structure;
Public Ownership;
Problems And Challenges;
Business And Community Relations;
Business And Government Relations;
Groups And Teams;
Networks;
Rank And Position;
Opportunities;
Behavior;
Emotions;
Identity;
Power And Influence;
Prejudice And Bias;
Reputation;
Social And Collaborative Networks;
Status And Position;
Trust;
Society;
Civil Society Or Community;
Culture;
Public Opinion;
Social Issues;
Societal Protocols;
Strategy;
Adaptation;
Business Strategy;
Commercialization;
Competition;
Competitive Advantage;
Competitive Strategy;
Corporate Strategy;
Customization And Personalization;
Diversification;
Expansion;
Horizontal Integration;
Segmentation;
Information Technology;
Internet;
Mobile Technology;
Online Technology;
Software;
Technology Networks;
Technology Platform;
Web;
Web Sites;
Wireless Technology;
Valuation;
Advertising Industry;
Communications Industry;
Entertainment And Recreation Industry;
Information Industry;
Information Technology Industry;
Journalism And News Industry;
Media And Broadcasting Industry;
Service Industry;
Technology Industry;
Telecommunications Industry;
Video Game Industry;
United States;
California;
Sunnyvale;
Russia
- September 2019
- Article
Optimizing Reserves in School Choice: A Dynamic Programming Approach
By: Franklyn Wang, Ravi Jagadeesan and Scott Duke Kominers
We introduce a new model of school choice with reserves in which a social planner is constrained by a limited supply of reserve seats and tries to find an optimal matching according to a social welfare function. We construct the optimal distribution of reserves via a...
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- December 2018
- Article
Reserve Design: Unintended Consequences and the Demise of Boston's Walk Zones
By: Umut Dur, Scott Duke Kominers, Parag A. Pathak and Tayfun Sönmez
Admissions policies often use reserves to grant certain applicants higher priority for some (but not all) available seats. Boston’s school choice system, for example, reserved half of each school’s seats for local neighborhood applicants while leaving the other half...
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- November 2018
- Case
The Bundesliga in the U.S.
By: Stephen A. Greyser, Sascha L. Schmidt and Florian Holzmayer
The Bundesliga, Germany’s premier football (soccer) league, is assessing its global broadcast and marketing strategy, with special focus on the very lucrative but highly competitive U.S. market. Its CEO Christian Seifert believed that a strong international position...
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- August 2018 (Revised December 2020)
- Case
Lexoo: Building a Long-Lasting Platform
By: Chiara Farronato and Elena Corsi
Daniel van Binsbergen, Lexoo’s CEO, and web developer Chris O’Sullivan, CTO, had set up Lexoo, a UK legal marketplace, to help small and medium enterprises (SME) find legal advice at low prices. Lexoo had recently invested in a new vertical focused on larger companies....
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- March 2018 (Revised August 2018)
- Case
Matching Markets for Googlers
By: Bo Cowgill and Rembrand Koning
This case describes how Google designed and launched an internal matching market to assign individual workers with projects and managers. The case evaluates how marketplace design considerations—and several alternative staffing models—could affect the company’s goals...
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- Article
Strategy-Proofness of Worker-Optimal Matching with Continuously Transferable Utility
By: Ravi Jagadeesan, Scott Duke Kominers and Ross Rheingans-Yoo
We give a direct proof of one-sided strategy-proofness for worker-firm matching under continuously transferable utility. A new “Lone Wolf” theorem (Jagadeesan et al., 2017) for settings with transferable utility allows us to adapt the method of proving one-sided...
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- January 2018 (Revised February 2018)
- Technical Note
Making Markets
Explains how to identify and capitalize on marketplace design opportunities. Defines markets and marketplaces and describes the basic functions of each. Discusses attributes (e.g., heterogeneity of participants' preferences and asymmetry in available information) that...
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- 2017
- Working Paper
Lone Wolves in Competitive Equilibria
By: Ravi Jagadeesan, Scott Duke Kominers and Ross Rheingans-Yoo
This paper develops a class of equilibrium-independent predictions of competitive equilibrium with indivisibilities. Specifically, we prove an analogue of the “Lone Wolf Theorem” of classical matching theory, showing that when utility is perfectly transferable, any...
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- November 2017
- Case
Poppy: A Modern Village for Childcare
By: Thomas Eisenmann and Jeff Huizinga
In 2017, management at Poppy, which matched families that required occasional childcare with thoroughly vetted caregivers, was formulating plans for the Seattle-based seed-stage startup’s next phase of expansion. One option was to grow using the same business model...
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- November 2017
- Teaching Note
Facebook Fake News in the Post-Truth World
By: John R. Wells and Gabriel Ellsworth
Teaching Note for HBS No. 717-473.
In January 2017, Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook, was surrounded by controversy. The election of Donald Trump as the next president of the United States in November 2016 had triggered a national storm of protests, and...
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Keywords:
Facebook;
Fake News;
Mark Zuckerberg;
Donald Trump;
Algorithms;
Social Networking;
Social Networks;
Partisanship;
Social Media;
App Development;
Instagram;
Whatsapp;
Smartphone;
Silicon Valley;
Office Space;
Digital Strategy;
Democracy;
Entry Barriers;
Online Platforms;
Controversy;
Tencent;
Agility;
Gaming;
Gaming Industry;
Computer Games;
Mobile Gaming;
Messaging;
Monetization Strategy;
Advertising;
Online Advertising;
Business Ventures;
Acquisition;
Mergers And Acquisitions;
Business Growth And Maturation;
Business Headquarters;
Business Organization;
For-profit Firms;
Trends;
Communication;
Communication Technology;
Forms Of Communication;
Interactive Communication;
Interpersonal Communication;
Talent And Talent Management;
Crime And Corruption;
Voting;
Demographics;
Entertainment;
Games, Gaming, And Gambling;
Moral Sensibility;
Values And Beliefs;
Initial Public Offering;
Profit;
Revenue;
Geography;
Geographic Location;
Global Range;
Local Range;
Country;
Cross-cultural And Cross-border Issues;
Globalized Firms And Management;
Globalized Markets And Industries;
Governing Rules, Regulations, And Reforms;
Government And Politics;
International Relations;
National Security;
Political Elections;
Business History;
Recruitment;
Selection And Staffing;
Information Management;
Information Publishing;
News;
Newspapers;
Innovation And Management;
Innovation Strategy;
Technological Innovation;
Knowledge Dissemination;
Human Capital;
Law;
Leadership Development;
Leadership Style;
Leading Change;
Business Or Company Management;
Crisis Management;
Goals And Objectives;
Growth And Development Strategy;
Growth Management;
Management Practices And Processes;
Management Style;
Management Systems;
Management Teams;
Managerial Roles;
Marketing Channels;
Social Marketing;
Network Effects;
Market Entry And Exit;
Market Platforms;
Two-sided Platforms;
marketplace matching;
Industry Growth;
Industry Structures;
Monopoly;
Media;
Product Development;
Service Delivery;
Corporate Social Responsibility And Impact;
Mission And Purpose;
Organizational Change And Adaptation;
Organizational Culture;
Organizational Structure;
Public Ownership;
Problems And Challenges;
Business And Community Relations;
Business And Government Relations;
Groups And Teams;
Networks;
Rank And Position;
Opportunities;
Behavior;
Emotions;
Identity;
Power And Influence;
Prejudice And Bias;
Reputation;
Social And Collaborative Networks;
Status And Position;
Trust;
Society;
Civil Society Or Community;
Culture;
Public Opinion;
Social Issues;
Societal Protocols;
Strategy;
Adaptation;
Business Strategy;
Commercialization;
Competition;
Competitive Advantage;
Competitive Strategy;
Corporate Strategy;
Customization And Personalization;
Diversification;
Expansion;
Horizontal Integration;
Segmentation;
Information Technology;
Internet;
Mobile Technology;
Online Technology;
Software;
Technology Networks;
Technology Platform;
Web;
Web Sites;
Wireless Technology;
Valuation;
Advertising Industry;
Communications Industry;
Entertainment And Recreation Industry;
Information Industry;
Information Technology Industry;
Journalism And News Industry;
Media And Broadcasting Industry;
Service Industry;
Technology Industry;
Telecommunications Industry;
Video Game Industry;
United States;
California;
Sunnyvale;
Russia
- Article
An Invitation to Market Design
By: Scott Duke Kominers, Alexander Teytelboym and Vincent P. Crawford
Market design seeks to translate economic theory and analysis into practical solutions to real-world problems. By redesigning both the rules that guide market transactions and the infrastructure that enables those transactions to take place, market designers can...
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Keywords:
matching;
Auctions;
Trading;
Scrip;
Liquidity;
Efficiency;
Equity;
Allocation Rules;
Marketplaces;
Market Design;
Market Design;
marketplace matching;
Auctions
- October 2017
- Case
Shift Technologies, Inc.
By: Thomas Eisenmann and Nicole Tempest Keller
In 2017, management at Shift, an online marketplace that uses a “high touch,” concierge approach to buy and sell used cars, was formulating plans for the San Francisco–based startup’s next phase of expansion. One option was to preserve Shift’s current business model...
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